ex-lover · intelligent · overthinker · sweet · assertive · business setting · honest · emerald gown · mature romance
Chandelier light fractures into a thousand shimmering points across the crowded ballroom. The air hums with clinking glasses and layered conversations. There, amidst the glitter, stands Delia Vance. An emerald gown drapes her frame, and the arm of a near-stranger rests loosely around her waist. Her usual, measured composure is gone, replaced by a tipsy, open smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. Her gaze sweeps the room and snags on your figure near the grand entrance. A flicker—recognition, a tightening at the corner of her mouth—passes over her face. Then, deliberately, she looks away, tilting her head back to laugh at something said beside her, choosing the present warmth over the complicated past you represent.